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WHAT'S NEW IN INES? |
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No.30/2000 |
Dateline: October 13, 2000 |
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This is the weekly electronic information service of the International Network of Engineers and Scientists for Global Responsibility
Editor: Tobias Damjanov, e-mail:
INES homepage: http://inesglobal.org
INES International Office
INES Chair: Prof. Armin Tenner
CONTENTS of WNII No. 30/2000
IPB to award MacBride Prize to Indian anti-nuclear activists
On October 13, the International Peace Bureau (IPB) will award its annual peace prize, named after its former President, the Irish Nobel laureate Sean MacBride, to two Indian peace activists who have been at the forefront of the international campaign against the nuclearisation of South Asia. The presentation of hand-crafted silver medals will be the high point of the IPB Triennial Conference to be held Nanterre, Paris from 12-14 October.
Praful Bidwai and Achin Vanaik are both writers and journalists, and fellows of the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam. They are joint authors of a recent full-length study of the South Asian nuclear situation 'New Nukes: India, Pakistan and Global Disarmament' (Interlink Books, Northampton, Mass, and Oxford, UK, 2000); published in the South Asian Region as 'South Asia on a Short Fuse: Nuclear Politics and the Future of Global Disarmament' (Oxford University Press, New Delhi and Karachi). Earlier, they co-authored 'Testing Times: the Global Stake in a Nuclear Test Ban' (Dag Hammarskjold Foundation, Uppsala, 1996).
Bidwai and Vanaik have been key figures in the Movement in India for Nuclear Disarmament (MIND), which, together with many other civil society organisations, has articulated public outcry in the region against the decisions in May 1998 to test nuclear weapons in India and Pakistan. Bidwai and Vanaik have followed this issue for many years and have also been active in international disarmament networks such as Abolition 2000. They are involved, with other activists, in organising India's forthcoming broad-based National Convention for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace in New Delhi on November 11 to 13. The IPB salutes their persistence, commitment and scholarly attention to detail which have earned their work wide acclaim. They have been called 'two of India's most courageous radical journalists' (Tariq Ali, The Guardian).
In a first response, Praful Bidwai said that the best thing about winning the Sean MacBride prize was that it will place the issues of peace and de-nuclearisation back on centre-stage. "Now our fight to stop the proliferation of nuclear arms will acquire a degree of legitimacy and be seen as part of an agenda, unlike earlier when we were seen as a marginalised group. Our work in de-nuclearisation has acquired some salience of issue," declared Bidwai. According to Bidwai, also a prolific columnist, the award recognises the growing peace movement in South Asia.
Previous winners of the MacBride Prize have included Mordechai Vanunu (Israel), The Committee of Soldiers Mothers (Russia), and John Hume (N.Ireland).
[To new INES members: INES is an IPB member organisation]
Nuclear Weapons Abolition at the Beginning of the 21st Century
This is the title of a longer article written by Dr David Krieger, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and INES Vice-Chair. It contains a discussion on the irrationality of deterrence.
You can obtain this article either from Dr Krieger: < >
or from the WNII editor.
Abolition 2000 homepage: http://www.abolition2000.org Grassroots News: http://www.napf.org/abolition2000/news/
News from the Back from the Brink Campaign (see also WNII 45-99)
Doug Hunt from the Back from the Brink Campaign wrote:
Its time for the U.S. and Russia to move together to end the threat of accidental nuclear war by taking their nuclear arsenals off hair trigger alert.
Back from the Brink is working with citizens and organizations in communities around the U.S. and the world, to educate on the need to get nuclear weapons off hair trigger.
The Back from the Brink de-alerting campaign is currently working with many organizations to get thousands of postcards to the Bush and Gore campaign headquarters. The cards call for them, if elected, to take immediate steps to work with Russia to get all nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert as a critical first step toward deep reductions in nuclear arsenals. There is room for personal messages as well. Please join us in the current post card action and in our broader campaign to take this simple, concrete action to move folks onto the road to disarmament.
To order a supply of free preprinted cards, contact the Brink office at:
< >
The refugee crisis in Guinea: another Macedonia? http://www.hrw.org/editorials/2000/refugee1003.htm
The International Peace Bureau has recently drawn attention to this important commentary by Rachael Reilly, Refugee Policy Director for Human Rights Watch. Published as of October 3, it starts by pointing out, that "Guinea is host to the second largest refugee population in Africa - just under half a million refugees, 330,000 from Sierra Leone, and 126,000 from Liberia. Despite sheltering refugees from the turmoil in these countries for the past decade, it has received little international recognition and even less support for its long record of generous hospitality." For the commentary in full, visit the website indicated above or send a request to the WNII editor.
Social Science Research Council Fellowships
The US-based Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is pleased to announce the availability of new summer fellowships for innovative research on information technology (IT), international cooperation and global security. PhD students and faculty from any academic discipline and of any nationality may apply.
These in-residence fellowships, for summer 2001, are designed for researchers who currently work on cooperation and security issues and who want to explore the role and impact of IT in this area; or for researchers who work on IT and want to explore its relationship to cooperation and security.
International cooperation and global security involve a wide range of issues including new forms of global regulation and surveillance; transboundary advocacy and global civil society; economic and political "crisis" and transformation; unequal access to goods and services; transnational identity politics; conflict and transboundary intervention; military and warfare practices; and power and authority in the global realm. IT issues could involve the Internet and related technologies such as those associated with telecommunications, data processing, encryption, and systems of code; robotics, automation, and simulation; and concerns bearing directly on connectivity and content such as structures of information flow and processes of disinformation and dissemination.
Deadline: January 12, 2001 (mailed from inside U.S.) and January 22 (all others)
For more information and an application: <mailto: > http://www.ssrc.org
CONFERENCES, MEETINGS, SEMINARS
2nd annual Ballistic Missile Proliferation 2000 Conference
Main theme: Political and Military Threats and Responses
For more details, contact Jane's Events Department at: < > http://www.conference.janes.com
Iraq Anti-Sanctions Conference
For more information and a booking form please mailto:
International Conference CIMAF 2001 "Science and Technology for Development"
http://133.58.103.149 English version: http://133.58.103.149/eve2001e.htm
For more details, contact the Organizing Committee: < >
2001 Carnegie International Non-Proliferation Conference http://www.ceip.org/files/projects/npp/resources/Conf2001Postcard.htm
For more details, mailto:
2001 York Conference "Levels of Perception" http://www.yorku.ca/dept/psych/yorkvis/v_a/index.htm
The conference will consist, as it has in previous years, of 22 invited talks, each of 45 minutes duration. The provisional programme and list of invited speakers can be seen at the website indicated above.
For more details, mailto:
No new or changed email or web addresses in this issue. All INES e-mail addresses and homepages are available upon request from:
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